Flip A Coin - I Dare You
by Lana Archer
Summary: What if the coin toss was between Matt and Bonnie in Caroline's game? And what if Stefan had his own motive behind it all concerning his dear brother? Will Damon do what it takes to keep Bonnie safe? Will Bonnie be able to live with the consequences of her survival?


**Note: **Has someone done this already? No? (unedited, because I'm a lazy bugger)

* * *

**Flip A Coin – I **_**Dare**_** You**

Damon and Bonnie were usually good at plans; in fact, let the records show that every time they collaborated in some way or another, shit _always_ got done. But since their death it seemed something fell out of its alignment cosmically; and this had less to do with them being BFFs and more to do with the fact that his brother and her 'sister' (as she keeps annoyingly reminding him) had turned their humanity off, his girlfriend was pro-amnesia and Kai was still skulking about making things more difficult for everyone. On top of that he had a mom again…kind of. But nothing could have prepared them for what happened today.

Damon had been in the middle of telling Elena that, no, as much as he loved her, he really didn't think it was a good idea for her to come along with him and Lily to bring Stefan and Caroline back. The loud trilling of his phone had given pause to his bulging eyes at his girlfriend and he frowned when he read the caller ID.

"Shush." Came the swift command to Elena and he spun around to answer. "Stefan?" Elena's eyes popped and she sped around him to face him and gage his reaction as she listened in easily to the conversation. Inwardly Damon was shooing her away but he honestly didn't have the strength to act on it at present.

"Damon! –" Bonnie's voice was cut off quickly and replaced with a low chuckle that tickled Damon's ear uncomfortably, something prickled at his chest. He'd been hearing that tone from her too often of late; voice strained and anxious, and most of all _scared_. He hadn't even realised that in that split second of hearing her voice he'd crushed the tumbler in his hand. Without sparing Elena a second glance he flashed away, still on the phone.

"Stefan what have you done?" He growled out. The younger brother snickered a little and Damon could hear Caroline laughing musically somewhere in the background.

"Come to the Grille and find out brother." Damon didn't need to be told twice.

* * *

Bonnie was at a loss for words. She'd thought that she could get through to Caroline somehow but it had all backfired when Stefan had grabbed her from behind, one arm around her waist another around her mouth and leaned in to whisper in her ear. She panicked and a muffled scream vibrated against his hand as he smiled. It was too much like Kai and much too soon for her to be able to handle it like she knew she could. But when he hit her too hard on the temple, effectively rendering her unconscious, she suddenly second guessed everything she knew. When she came to she kept as still as possible and to breathe evenly, she'd been through this too often to not have learned anything from it.

"I'm telling you," She heard Caroline say; "Damon loves her." A snort from Stefan.

"Maybe but if anything, killing her would send him on a rampage, not get him to turn it all off."

"You'd be surprised what Damon would do for Bonnie." Caroline sighed, "It's kind of sweet actually."

"Careful Forbes," Stefan goaded, "Your emotions are showing." Bonnie jerked upright then and found herself bound up with thick rope to one of the bar stools. Her eyes darted around, scouring the surroundings, her head snapped to her left and she found Matt bound in a similar way and the sight of him tore at something inside of her. She tried calling to him but her mouth was gagged. She set her wide eyes on Caroline and Stefan, the former of whom beamed at Bonnie so happily that for a moment Bonnie wondered if she wasn't just having another horrid, abstract nightmare. But flitting her gaze over to Stefan's soulless yet somehow perpetually amused gaze she felt that familiar sinking in her chest. She was up Shit's Creek without a paddle. Again. Stefan stood to his feet and approached her with that near feral gait in his steps that was too unnerving, but she couldn't look away from him. With something more akin to a leer he leaned in and took the dishrag off of her mouth and grinned. "Hello Bonnie." His voice was low and eerie, and she hated it.

"What are you doing Stefan?" She asked, seething inwardly at herself for the shake in her voice.

"Having fun mostly," he said casually, shooting up right and flashing a quick wink to Caroline, "But I miss my brother and I need him back and you're how I'm going to get that right so…here _you_ are."

"What do you mean you need Damon back?" Bonnie's eyes went from Caroline to Stefan and back, the blonde merely shrugging while Stefan's expression darkened.

"I want his emotions off. And he and I both know that I would never hurt Elena," Bonnie looked to Caroline then but she was unphased as ever, "So the only believable route to take is to threaten to kill you." Bonnie couldn't help the tears in her eyes then, "I mean let's face it, you were way too good to me and I always took advantage of that. That's not friendship Bon, that's called being someone's _Enabler_." Even with his condescending tone she couldn't help but look into his eyes and try and find some semblance of the vampire she knew, but nothing. "You should have known better than to trust me," his smile was sharp, "Also, I don't know if you've noticed but there isn't anything Damon wouldn't do for you." Bonnie jerked in her seat and this pleased him immensely. "And you for him, so, I suppose I should thank you," she scowled at him even through the haze of her fear and confusion, "First you brought my brother home to me and now you'll be the one to give him back to me, for real." His smile widened and she felt like she was looking into the mouth of a shark.

"At least let Matt go." Bonnie asked, aware of the tears in her eyes. He patted her on the shoulder none too gently and shook his head.

"No can do kiddo," he said as he pulled his phone out, "He's leverage, if you even _think_ about using magic his head is going straight out the window." Bonnie's head fell forward as she shook with sadness. "Ooh!" He said excitedly, "It's ringing, wanna say hi?" He held the phone out to her and she heard Damon's voice. More than anything she wanted to tell him to stay away, to go and find his mother, to fix all of this but the only thing that came out of her mouth was his name before Stefan snatched the phone away and wagged a finger at her and walked away to talk to his brother. Bonnie shot her eyes to Caroline, widening, begging her for freedom but the blonde merely wiggled her fingertips in response and took a sip of some lime green cocktail.

* * *

When Damon came running into the Grille, not five minutes later, Bonnie half expected Elena to be with him, but she wasn't. Bonnie didn't have the time to consider why this didn't surprise her. Damon's eyes locked in on her first, then the ropes, then Matt before finally landing on the vampire duo that were currently toying with a coin between the two of them.

"Bonnie." He muttered and her heart twisted in her chest.

"Damon, please leave." She said and he frowned, his face quickly turning incredulous before his eyes settled on his brother.

"Why is Bonnie tied up to a bar stool?" Damon snapped. "And answer me quickly before I finally pop Blondie's head off for good." The elder Salvatore's smile was sharp.

"You don't have the balls," Stefan replied, "Elena would never forgive you." Damon snorted loudly and tugged off his leather jacket.

"And what part of my history with Elena makes you think that? She forgives me more often than not, and when she doesn't, she punishes me with sex..." He stuck his palms out and widened his eyes. "Utterly _horrifying_ if you ask me." Stefan laughed.

"Less about that, more about your precious Bonnie." Stefan decided, "Either you turn your humanity off and we leave this backwards town or the good witch gets it." The look on the younger Salvatore's face was maniacal. Damon's expression dipped into a cool rage that had even Caroline standing at attention.

"You hurt her and I will kill everyone in this room except you and her." Damon vowed, "I don't even know why Matt's here, he's been collateral damage since day one."

"Damon!" Bonnie yelled with a gasp. He cut his eyes to her.

"Between you and him?" Damon quipped, and his face turned to faux sympathy, "Please. It's not even a choice."

"He's my friend Damon!" Bonnie bit out through her teeth. Damon growled and hissed his response.

"And you're mine!" He said, aware of how ambiguous that statement sounded, "Don't push me on this Bonnie; I'm getting you out of here no matter what." The witch pressed her eyes shut as her tears came quicker.

"That's why Matt's here." Caroline said with a sweet smile, "Bonnie can never resist saving someone, plus, if she tries to use magic we'll just kill him."

"Just turn it off and it all goes away Damon." Stefan said simply when his brother turned his glare on him. "Turn it off and no one gets hurt."

"Damon, no." Bonnie begged, "Just go, _please_."

"_**Bonnie**_." He said her name like a swear word, something he hadn't done in years, "Shut. Up."

"We could flip a coin to speed it all up." Caroline decided a sudden pep in her step as she flashed to retrieve it and stand back next to a still unconscious Matt. "Head's I kill Matt, Tails I kill Bonnie."

"Really?" Stefan wondered.

"Flip a coin." Damon's voice was hard, "I fucking _**dare**_ you." Bonnie's heartbeat sped as she watched his face bleed into vampiric form. In a flash Stefan was on the floor, a needle sticking out of his neck and he turned slowly to grin at Caroline who'd managed a small sound of surprise. With a quirk of her brow Bonnie snapped the blonde's neck. "Don't move." Damon said as he flashed to Stefan and sped away. Bonnie frowned at the door that was swinging slightly, Damon having left it ajar as he sped away. She unwound herself and Matt and walked to Caroline and scowled down at her best friend's body. She felt a soft breeze from somewhere behind her.

"I don't know why they thought I'd be good leverage." She said, tilting her head as she looked at Caroline. "And for your humanity switch too." She shook her head.

"They weren't wrong you know," he said as he picked the blonde vampire up and tossed her over his shoulder, "if my hands had been truly tied I would have done it, so long as you were safe." She didn't have a response to that. "Come to think of it, you're basically my humanity," her eyebrows shot up, "in a Jiminy Cricket kind of way, don't give me that look," he tisked, "You're just the physical representation of everything good in me. You make me see good in me, and that's…well that's worth more than you think." She pressed her lips together to keep from saying something she probably shouldn't.

"So what do we do now?" Bonnie wondered, watching with a frown as he tossed Caroline into the trunk of his Camaro.

"We put them in cells and bled 'em dry." Damon said casually, "Especially Stefan, Blondie is hopeless but even Stefan should have known better than hurting you."

"He didn't –" Damon cut her off by lifting her wrists to her eyes, there were feint red lines there and then he pointed a finger to her cheek where her tears were drying and then he sighed.

"He hurt you and I'm sorry it was because of me." Damon said solemnly. "I know you haven't been the same with everything with Kai and after the stunt I pulled," she nodded with wide eyes, "I can't even imagine what this must have been for you and that, that is what I can't forgive."

"But you got me and I'm safe so it's fine." He shook his head sadly as he ushered her into the passenger seat of the car before speeding into the driver's seat.

"The situation is handled, that doesn't mean it's fine and I won't let you pretend otherwise. I made that mistake with you already and I won't ever be doing that again." She averted her eyes. "Bonnie you're important to me, deal with it."

"It's not that, I just, I mean, _thank you obviously_," she sighed as she looked out the window, "I just, I guess I'm wondering when it all ends you know?" He nodded. "I can't live like this for much longer."

"Then don't." He said seriously, "None of us deserve to have you even consider us friends, okay, except maybe Matt, but…if you left, no one would hold it against you." She hummed in agreement.

"The only thing stopping me is the fact that I have nothing outside of this hell hole." Her voice was soft, a breathy whisper, "And truthfully, I think the only real friend I have left is you." Damon's jaw clenched as he stared ahead.

"Well," he said as he curled into the Salvatore driveway, "Truthfully I don't want you to leave but I also want you happy." He killed the engine then and turned to her as she chewed her lip. "Hey," he took her hand in his and tried to smile, "We'll figure it out, okay?" She held gaze for a long time.

"Okay."

* * *

_The Grille_

When Matt came to with a loud breathy cough Elena burst into the doors with car keys dangling from her fingers. She frowned at the blonde boy who looked at her questioningly.

"What the hell happened?" He wondered.

"I would love to know." The vampire girl sighed.

* * *

**Note:** So? Whatcha think?


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